Arkansas law enforcement certification levels form a five-step career ladder — Basic, General, Intermediate, Advanced, and Senior — issued by the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training (CLEST). Each level requires the one below it, and each raises the bar on three things at once: training hours, formal education, and years of service. You cannot skip a level.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009
What Has to Happen Before Level One
Before any certificate is on the table, a candidate has to clear CLEST’s baseline hiring standards (age 21, U.S. citizenship, high school diploma or GED, no felony record, medical and psychological clearance, background check) and then complete a Commission-approved basic police training course of at least 520 hours.2Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 10023Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1005 An officer has nine months from hire to finish that academy training, or they cannot keep serving.4Justia Law. Arkansas Code 12-9-106 – Selection and Training Everything below assumes that academy training is done.
Basic Certificate
The Basic Certificate is where the ladder starts. To earn it, an officer must have completed the 520-hour basic police training course and served a probationary period of at least 12 months with their current department.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009 That probationary year is when the agency evaluates whether the officer belongs in the job long-term, and only after it ends does CLEST issue the permanent credential.
General Certificate
The General Certificate is the first promotion up the ladder. It requires the Basic Certificate plus a combination of education-or-training points and years on the job, and the Commission lets officers trade one for the other. An officer with 48 education or training points needs 2 years of experience; an officer with only 25 points needs 5 years.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009 That same trade-off between classroom and field time runs through every remaining level.
Intermediate Certificate
Intermediate certification requires holding or being eligible for the General Certificate. The point counts climb: the lowest qualifying combination is 40 education or training points with 8 years of experience, and one route requires an associate degree with 4 years of experience. There is also a subject-matter rule that first appears at this level: at least 6 of the education points must come from college English coursework.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009 Officers who never touched a college classroom during Basic or General can be caught off guard by that.
Advanced Certificate
The Advanced Certificate shifts the requirements toward formal college credit. Officers no longer accumulate generic education-or-training points; they must show specific semester hours with at least a 2.0 GPA, alongside a heavy training-hour count and years of experience. A bachelor’s degree gets an officer to Advanced with 410 training hours and 6 years of experience. An officer with only 6 semester hours of college credit needs 620 training hours and 16 years of service.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009 The higher you go on the ladder, the more formal education matters.
Senior Certificate
The Senior Certificate is the top of the ladder. It requires the Advanced Certificate and the most demanding combination CLEST recognizes. At minimum, an officer needs 30 semester hours of college credit, 920 training hours, and 18 years of experience. A master’s degree cuts that dramatically: 440 training hours and 6 years of experience are enough.1Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1009 Very few officers reach this level without pursuing significant post-secondary education along the way.
Part-Time and Auxiliary Officers
The five-level ladder above tracks full-time law enforcement service. The Commission runs separate credentials for officers who do not work full-time. Part-time I officers follow the same 520-hour training path as full-time officers. Part-time II and Auxiliary officers have a shorter requirement: at least 110 hours of Commission-approved instruction, including a firearms qualification equivalent to the full-time standard. Time spent in an auxiliary or part-time role does not count toward maintaining a full-time officer’s training status during a period of separation.5Legal Information Institute. 132.00.15 Ark. Code R. 013 – Regulation 1005 Minimum Standards
Keeping a Certificate Once You Have It
None of these levels are permanent by default. Every certified officer in Arkansas must complete at least 24 hours of CLEST-approved training each year to keep working. Those hours must include firearms qualification, duty-to-intervene training, and 4 hours devoted specifically to racial profiling awareness.6Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules All certificates remain the property of the Commission, which can revoke any of them after written notice and a hearing.7Arkansas Department of Public Safety. Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training Rules – Rule 1034 An officer who lets the annual training lapse, or who is dismissed for excessive force, dishonesty, or an ethics violation, can lose the credential regardless of how high they climbed on the ladder.